Kevin Gillespie's Grilled Pork Tenderloin With Spanish-Style Garlic Shrimp
Atlanta chef Kevin Gillespie was born to cook pig — this we know. The Top Chef fan favorite and author of a couple of our favorite cookbooks (especially his latest, Pure Pork Awesomeness) is one porkmaster whose recipes you can depend on for a hearty, meaty, smoky meal. Why serve surf or turf when you can do both? Bring on the garlic!
Here's another one for the backyard barbecue. It's like Spanish surf and turf with shrimp and pork. The idea came from a Brazilian steakhouse in Atlanta, Fogo de Chao. They roast whole pork loins and carve them for you tableside. It's good, but I always thought it would be better with some surf to go with the turf. Classic Spanish garlic shrimp is just the thing. The dish is pretty lean overall, but there's nothing lacking in the flavor department. Garlic, olive oil, sherry, sherry vinegar, and smoked paprika pack tons of flavor into the grilled tenderloin and shrimp. It's pretty quick, too. Once everything's marinated, it cooks in less than 15 minutes.
- 1 pork tenderloin
- 12 cloves garlic
- 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup sherry
- 4 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup sherry vinegar
- 2 tablespoons smoked paprika
- 16 jumbo shrimp (21-25 count)
- Fresh Basil leaves
- Remove and discard the silver skin from the tenderloin. Thinly slice 8 cloves of the garlic and combine with 1/4 cup of the olive oil, the sherry, 2 teaspoons of the salt, and 1/2 teaspoon of the pepper in a quart-size zip-top bag. Add the tenderloin and marinate in the refrigerator overnight.
- Finely chop the remaining 4 cloves of garlic and combine in a small bowl with the remaining 1/4 cup olive oil, the remaining 2 teaspoons salt, the remaining 1/2 teaspoon pepper, sherry vinegar, and smoked paprika. Refrigerate overnight.
- Heat a grill over medium-high heat or a grill pan over high heat. Divide the garlic-paprika sauce in half. Arrange 8 shrimp in a line, all facing in the same direction. Using 2 skewers, skewer through the shrimp on each end so they will stay flat and are easy to flip on the grill. Repeat with the remaining shrimp. Slather both sides of the shrimp with one-half of the garlic-paprika sauce and let them marinate while the pork is cooking.
- Remove the tenderloin from the marinade and discard the marinade. Pat the pork dry and grill until nicely charred, about 3 minutes per side, for a total of 12 minutes. The pork should reach 145°F internally to be medium rare. If your tenderloin is larger than 12 ounces, you may need to finish cooking it on a cooler part of the grill for about 5 minutes. Place on a plate and tent with aluminum foil to keep warm; the carryover cooking will bring it to just the right temperature.
- Arrange the shrimp so that there is a little space between them on the skewers. Add the shrimp to the grill and cook for about 45 seconds, then flip and grill for another 45 seconds. Continue flipping and grilling for a total of 3 minutes cooking time. You don’t want to char the shrimp, hence the flip-and-grill method. When the shrimp are done, they’ll be opaque; they cook fast, so watch carefully. When they come off the grill, slather them with some of the other half of the garlic paprika sauce.
- Transfer the tenderloin to a cutting board, reserve the juices, and slice on the bias. Pour the reserved juices into the remaining garlic-paprika sauce and stir to combine. Arrange the tenderloin on plates, top with the shrimp, and drizzle with the sauce and some additional olive oil. Sprinkle on some torn basil leaves.
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